For this year’s 31 Nights of Horror Challenge, the Day 25 prompt is Wes Craven Deep Cut. We watched the movie,The Serpent and the Rainbow on Amazon Prime.

Storyline

In 1985, after a successful research in Amazonas, Dr. Dennis Alan from Harvard is invited by the president of a Boston pharmaceutics industry, Andrew Cassedy, to travel to Haiti to investigate the case of a man named Christophe that died in 1978 and has apparently returned to life. Andrew wants samples of the voodoo drug that was used in Christophe to be tested with the intention of producing a powerful anesthetic. Dr. Alan travels to meet Dr. Marielle Duchamp that is treating Christophe and arrives in Haiti in a period of revolution. Soon Alan is threatened by the chief of the feared Tonton Macuse Dargent Peytraud, who is a torturer and powerful witch. Alan learns that death is not the end in the beginning of his journey to hell.

Our Thoughts on The Seperent and the Rainbow (1988)

The idea of exploring Haitian voodoo, zombification, and the blurred line between science and the supernatural is a brilliant foundation for a horror film. There are moments where Wes Craven’s flair for the surreal shines through, offering eerie dreamlike sequences and flashes of psychological horror that hint at something truly memorable. Unfortunately, those moments are too few and far between.

For much of its runtime, the film struggles to maintain momentum, drifting between political thriller, travelogue, and supernatural horror without fully committing to any one tone. It’s an ambitious mix, but one that never quite finds its footing. Still, beneath the dated effects and uneven pacing, you can feel Craven experimenting and trying to push beyond conventional horror into something more cerebral and mythic.

Watching it today, I couldn’t help but think that a modern-day remake could work exceptionally well. With updated visuals, tighter editing, and a stronger focus on the psychological and cultural elements of the story, it could easily find a new audience and reach the potential this version only teases.

It’s by no means Wes Craven’s best work, but it’s also far from his worst. As a curiosity in his filmography, The Serpent and the Rainbow remains worth watching for its concept alone, even if the execution doesn’t quite deliver.

5 out of 10 stars

Trivia 

Inspired the song Voodoo by Godsmack, an alternative rock band. The band wrote the song while watching the film together. Voodoo is also used every year at Carowinds Amusement Park during the annual S’Carowinds Halloween Haunt.

Due to political strife and civil turmoil in Haiti during the production, the local government informed the film crew that they could not guarantee their safety for the remainder of the shoot. The crew subsequently relocated to nearby Dominican Republic to complete filming.

The character of Christophe Durand was based on Clairvius Narcisse, who was stated to have died in 1962 and was later risen as a zombie by a local Haitian witch doctor. Narcisse was poisoned by Datura, a drug which caused memory loss, and forced to work as a slave on a sugar plantation. He escaped 16 years later, after his captors had died. He had apparently been weaned off the Datura by eating salty foods containing bromide, which counteracted it.

Bill Pullman acted alongside a jaguar, a viper and a tarantula during the course of film. However all the animals were raised in captivity and were relatively tame.